Monday, 11 August 2014

My Henna Hibiscus treatment experience on Natural Hair

So I finally got a henna + hibiscus treatment sometime
in May. To be honest, this was not the first time I would be doing a henna
treatment, but the first time in over a year. I had previously been using the
henna bar from lush cosmetics, but it is really expensive for henna, in my
opinion. Once it finished, I stopped doing henna treatment, but
nappilynigerian’s rave about it, and Anna’s experience with it made me try it
out once again, this time, with hibiscus.

So I started by using a blender to make a paste out of
hibiscus flower, because I did not have hibiscus powder then.

Be warned that this
is not the best method, cos it will leave hibiscus residue all over your hair, which
will take days to get rid of. It is better you use hibiscus powder in your mix, and this can be found on our online store. I then mixed the hibiscus paste with henna paste, added a little lemon juice for acidity, and soaked it for 8 hours.

If you use the powder, the paste will be extremely red.

I then applied the mix all over my hair, with my bare
palms. I had the mix in my hair overnight, cos the day was already over, but
anything from four hours is okay. The next day, I proceeded to wash off, shampoo,
and followed up with a deep conditioner.

To be honest, I felt my hair was going to be coloured,
but after getting the treatment, it wasn’t. I later found out that it hardly
colours black hair, but it does colour white people’s hair. In fact, I met a
young Nigerian lady with grey hair, who uses henna to cover up her grey
strands. Henna actually dyes her hair reddish. I later found out that if your
hair is rich in melanin, making it black, you will hardly notice the colour
effects of henna, but doesn’t mean it doesn’t have effect. But since grey hair,
red hair, blond hair, etc. are not rich in melanin, you see the visible effects
of henna. In fact, the effect of henna is so strong that it dyed my palms red
for 2 weeks.

It was strange, going around with red palms. I looked like a
mutant, and everyone kept asking questions. It dyed my fingernails permanently,
till the dyed part grew out and broke off. As I type this post, half of my nails are still red.

Since hair and nails are very
similar, I am very sure it also has colour effects on our strands, but we can’t
see it. If you choose to use hibiscus in your henna treatment, please wear a
pair of gloves. You have been warned. Here are real life pictures of my mutation when I went to speak and present at seminar two days later.

It was only when the pictures of the event came out that I realised how ridiculous I looked, speaking and presenting with read palms. I just hope those hands did not distract my listeners, cos they sure are distracting me, just by looking at the pictures.

Now, here is the twist. Even though I used my whole palms to apply the treatment, the back of my hands were not turned red. Why is that? Still brings us back to the melanin issue. There is melanin on black skin, but not on our palms. The treatment dyed the palms, but not the skin. Same logic for black hair vs grey and blond hair effect

After my treatment, to be honest, I have experienced less shedding and breakage. I know it is not due to the treatment alone, but I believe
the treatment takes a large part of the credit. I will definitely be doing this
treatment every two or three months.

If you want to get your own henna or hibiscus powder,
don’t go too far. You can place your order for it on the African Naturalistas
store here. They are just 500 naira for every hundred grams, and you can’t even
finish that at once. Place your order now.

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